Life can change in the blink of an eye. One day my sister is finishing up her teaching degree and moving her family to a new city, aiming to start her dream job of having her own classroom, and the next moment she is being told she will have to face cancer first. If any of you know my sister, then you know that Jessica is a sweet, sincere, hard working and dedicated mother to her five year old son Gavin. They are each other’s world, and to know the stress she now faces simply breaks my heart. Jessica had been experiencing back pain for about the past month. Really excruciating back pain, so she found herself at the doctors office and chiropractor. None of these visits uncovered what was really going on. On the most recent appointment she received an adjustment, and when she went to get up from the table she fainted. As she came to her doctor was most concerned as it appeared she may have had a mini seizure. The chiropractor sent her home and told her to seek medical attention. Jessica, not having insurance at the time, brushed it off and went on about her day. That night, she began to experience tingling and numbing from her waist down and opted to be taken to the emergency room by our mom. At first she was given the run around and was about to be discharged with no answers to her pain, numbness or fainting episode earlier that day. She stood strong and insisted they re-examine her symptoms. They put a new doctor on her case and immediately following a neurological exam of her legs he knew something more must be happening. Jessica was given an MRI where they could see a mass compressing her spinal cord. Her heart broke. Paralysis and permanent damage was an immediate concern, so she was airlifted to a bigger hospital in Albuquerque where she waited nervously to undergo emergency spinal surgery to decompress her spinal cord. How her life changed in the blink of an eye. I am still in shock for my sister. Twenty eight and so much ahead of her, but for the moment she will have to put her career on hold. The surgery went well and relieved most of her symptoms, minus a little tingling and weakness in her legs. Upon further testing, it had been determined that Jessica has stage 4 Diffused Large B Cell lymphoma (due to the involvement of her central nervous system). We are told 4 weeks of radiation on the isolated mass followed by 18 weeks of Chemotherapy plus high dose Methotrexate treatments which require several day hospital stays in between the chemo treatments. It’s all one can do but think positive thoughts and pray. As this journey for Jessica and her family continues, I know that the financial situation will add to the stress, so I wanted to start a fund to help offset the cost and loss of work since Jessica won’t be able to start a teaching job right away, come the start of a new school year. The mortgage, car, childcare, and other normal living expenses still exist for her and I was hoping we could all help contribute to making the next 4-5 months of this journey a little easier to travel for them. If you can contribute, thank you for your generosity and if you cannot, please, please keep Jessica and our family in your prayers and thoughts, as I’m a firm believer in positivity and God. Also, can you share this your page so that more may help and hear how fast life can change, and to cherish every moment for you never know what the road ahead may look like. For this young mom, sister, I pray for her strength to endure, her courage to withstand and her ability to never give up and persevere. For with God and all of us I know she will make it through.